


Engineering the Afterlife

by kiranovember



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-18
Updated: 2014-02-18
Packaged: 2018-01-12 23:56:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1205236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiranovember/pseuds/kiranovember
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"This is Samaritan.  You're going to make it work."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Engineering the Afterlife

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by several hours of reading kinkmeme prompts and fills, but not a fill for any one in particular.

The drives are placed on the desk in front of him. "This is Samaritan. You're going to make it work."

He looks up at his captor who is smiling at him in a way that attempts to be benevolent, but looks instead like the cartoon Grinch smiling at little Sue Who. "And what is Samaritan?"

"Arthur Claypool - you remember Arthur, don't you? Had a government contract to build a Machine. Very nearly succeeded, too, until they shut him down when another team beat him to the prize." 

He stared helplessly at the drives, remembering late night conversations about the possibility of Artificial Intelligences, the uses to which they could be put, the ethical considerations of keeping a true AI captive, although he was the only one arguing ethics. Was Arthur still alive? Had they killed him to aquire them? He wished he knew, one way or the other, but knew already that Greer would never give him the satisfaction of an answer, not without demanding something in return.

He'd only learned that Harold had survived the bomb when they had brought him the source code; finding Harold's hidden code-within-the-code had assured him that Harold had been involved somehow in the transaction. He'd built the virus Greer had wanted but left Harold's code intact, unsure of its purpose but trusting his friend that it had one. Greer's reaction had spoken volumes: they had failed to gain control of the Machine.

More proof lay on the desk. If they were building their own system then they had given up, at least for now. He was curious in spite of himself. He and Harold had used some of Arthur's ideas; how much resemblance was there?

"We are installing the additional hardware you will need as I speak. Tomorrow you will begin work. Don't dawdle, Mr. Ingram, or I will have to rethink our arrangement."


End file.
